Aug 17 2013:
Help others find the pure beauty in themselves enough to turn patterns and habits of self-destruction into habits of self-creation. There's so much more unseen in a person and situation that there is seen, including ourselves. It's important to know that we can't see everything, and that perception is as malleable as perspective - what you believe literally shapes what you see, and vice versa. With that understanding, one can see himself through anything. We're capable of a lot more than we've been led to believe. I'd love nothing more than to see each person live to their full potential.

Aug 18 2013:
Thank you! That is definitely the case, in fact it was because I found something extraordinary in me that I am able to so easily see it in others now. Kind of a chicken/egg thing, but they definitely go hand in hand. Then yesterday, I stumbled upon a quote by Nelson Mandela that said, "our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure." I can definitely attest to that. :)

Aug 19 2013:
i appreciate it，brain.but can you explain more about mandela's words?any examples of that?

you mentioned about something extraordinary in you,would you like to tell me about that?as a high school student,i am quite confused sometimes,for i been trying to find myself,you know,to be a real me.(i think right now i'm just 50percent me)hopefully i can become your first target ?:)

i am gonna say one more thing.your concept happen to meet the old confucios idea of"taking care of all the old as if they were your own parents;taking care of all the children as if they were your own kids. however,yours is more focused on the help"discover the full potential"part.it's such an honour to talk with such wise and brilliant people like you.

"Our Greatest Fear
It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous,
talented and fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other
people won't feel insecure around you.

We were born to make manifest the glory of
God that is within us.

It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine,
we unconsciously give other people
permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our own fear,
Our presence automatically liberates others.

—Marianne Williamson

[Often said to have been quoted in a speech by Nelson Mandela. The source is Return to Love by Marianne Williamson, Harper Collins, 1992. —Peter McLaughlin]

Aug 19 2013:
Yes, thanks! When I searched it, I was confused by two different names coming up. I love that quote... Yijiia, I'd love to help you out however I can.

As for what is extraordinary in me, it took about a year and a half of constantly digging into myself to really find it. The weird thing is, it wasn't anything new to me; as I like to put it, I'm still the same spasmodically enthusiastic 5 year old, I just have a lot more coordination and skill now. Basically, the "extraordinary" me that I uncovered is a person that leads an inpiring life that inspires others through music, words and humor.

The main thing I found was trust and confidence. I used to be very private, would barely speak a word about anything, and it was always very vague, never direct to the point. I was deathly afraid of rejection, abandonment, being misunderstood or discredited, etc. As I learned to trust my intuition and nurture myself into a confident person, my world turned around entirely. Since that was the case, my biggest goal right now is to help others find what is essentially "them" and to build their confidence in that.

If all of existence was viewed as a garden, and each thing (living or not) is a different flower in that garden, humans would be the only ones who could choose not to bloom. There's a chance that someone won't like your colors, feel threatened by them, even, threaten you because of them, make fun of them, etc. We are special in that we have free will, but with that comes only one real choice: to allow or deny the natural process coming through us. So even though it may be frightening to think that some people won't understand or accept the beauty of your partciular flower, bloom anyway.

Thanks so much for the compliment and questions, here's my e-mail. Feel free to use it anytime. sivmia37@gmail.com

Aug 19 2013:
I love the quote too Brian, and have posted it several times on TED:>) The first time I looked for it years ago, I was confused as well because I thought it was authored by Nelson Mandela, and he apparently used at least some of it in his inaugural speech, but apparently, it came from Marianne Williamson.

You write..."As for what is extraordinary in me, it took about a year and a half of constantly digging into myself to really find it."

You may find that as you continue to explore, there are more and more levels of discovery. Yijiia has picked out one of the best parts of that quote...

"And as we let our own light shine,
we unconsciously give other people
permission to do the same."

Aug 15 2013:
I totally respect your thought. This is absolutely natural to want to achieve these several things and more for our children and generations to follow. A natural greatness, maybe today it is LOST.

Aug 17 2013:
It would be to foster interpersonal relationships, to help people develop intrapersonal communication so each and every single one of us could reach out to understand, empathy and help other people around us. And by doing so, I hope to bring people closer together.

Aug 17 2013:
Amen! We're all in this together. :) Building people and communities benefits us all. There is no subsitute for trust. I fully support bringing people closer together. How are you going about it, and how may I help?

Aug 19 2013:
My initial idea is to start with educating children. Teach them love themselves and others, help them to develop the ability to empathize with others. And as these children grow up, they help to spread the love and trust to other people around them. Good people will bring out the good in people.
I know it will actually be much harder than it sounds. But this is my idea for now. How about you, what do you think might be the way?

Aug 14 2013:
Don,
How about using your carpentry skills to build beautiful arbors, trellises, benches, chairs and tables for the garden so you and your guests will be pleased to have a BBQ in your gardens, spiced with herbs you grow in your gardens, while you share your ideas about graphics, ancestry and spiritual growth.....which.....in my humble perception is all blended anyway:>)

BTW - I feel like a jack of all trades, master of none, and feel very good about blending everything, because I believe everything and everyone is interconnected :>)

Aug 19 2013:
If it were me, it would have to be art and music related. I would construct a media school for inner-city youth. A small club where teenagers can come to create music, art, games, what-ever their heart desires. If we're to affect change, I believe we must start in our own backyard.

Aug 18 2013:
Bernard, you certainly are taking a leap ahead! Last week you were working toward being a CEO of a large company, this week it's God! If you're going to do something great, no point in messing around with little stuff:>)

Aug 16 2013:
I would motivate the college students to participate in as many events as possible. In India, the students waste time unnecessarily by facebooking. I would bring their hidden talent out. !!!!

Aug 15 2013:
LOL, yesterday I misread the question “If you could do one great thing” as “If you could do one thing great”. I could say my reply was divergent-thinking, but the truth is that was a brain fart.

Anyway, the one great thing I seek to do is to invent and create an electric power generator that uses gravity as its power/fuel. (Instead of wind or solar.) Than I release it to the free-world, on the honor system. (AI; people are free to build it, than I trust them to send me a % of their profits)

Aug 15 2013:
This is a basic neuro linguistic programming question or nlp question the second part of which is Well what stops you?
the answer to this part gives you your reasons or excuses for not doing it,the answers below seem to require someone else doing the changing,What can you do?i.e joyce could support one health centre or manishka could spend time with children explaining what an adventurous care free childhood is like,we have all seen what a big difference one person can make Let that person be you.

Aug 19 2013:
Hi Colleen, i wrote so many answers to this and deleted them because i don't have an answer,in my job as a hypnotherapist i try to help one person at a time,i would set up a mooc to teach nlp entrapeneurship and basic electronics,but i don't have the skill set,i am learning to program so it can be a future possibility.What i wrote was my first comment to this site thank you for your kind reply

Alter the brains of every single human being on Earth; to act in love and consider others before thyself. I'd inject their veins with compassion, stir empathy in their plasma. I would put soft tenderness onto their skin, and sweet moisture on their lips. I would blow a lazy summer breeze in their breath, and a happy smile in their eyes. And after all this is done, I would whisper that little truth we've forgotten so long ago- that we are one, all beings, and we are love.

Aug 15 2013:
You know, Gandhi said something like, "We must be the change we wish to see in the world." I bet it would be nice to go around on a mission from whoever insisting that other people change, but I'm willing to bet that real change, real greatness, comes from looking inwards and asking oneself, "What can I do to make the world a better place?"

Aug 14 2013:
I would make all men and women in the world equal, both legally and socially. Everyone, men and women, would consider the two sexes as completely equal in every way, and respect people, or not, without gender being a consideration. I think the consequences would be amazing and wonderful. I would love to live in such a world. I suspect that many of our other problems would be quickly solved.

Aug 14 2013:
I would visit each and every human being on planet earth in their dreams.As they slept, I would whisper a truth we have sadly forgotten. We are all one in the same and when we hurt another, we are hurting ourselves. I would then whisper a warning. when you inflict a wrong doing on another, be it an immoral and/or unethical act, you too will experience the pain you have created. Before I left them to their sleep would whisper, you shall begin each and every day with these words; I greet this day with love in my heart.

Aug 19 2013:
I think I would try to live for a whole year as a handicapped, poor, unemployed person in the most difficult to live in city or place in the World. Great change comes with great self knowledge, revelation and experience!

Aug 19 2013:
Put an end to terrorism, wars, hostility and the need to be the one in control of the World! We talk about Peace, but little is really done to bringing total harmony and co-exist among ourselves.

Start by taking all the perpetrators of violent crimes out of our prisons and give them on a one-way trip to any one of those small islands out in the Pacific Ocean and let them fend for themselves. No roof over their heads, no free meals, just their own ingenuity, if any. Let them rely on each other or kill each other!

If anyone thinks this is in-humane, just ask some of the victims their opinions.

Aug 19 2013:
I believe all humans are created noble, and I live by the Nine Noble Virtues. The one great thing I wish I could do is to have the all world believe all humans are created noble, and live by the Nine Noble Virtues
Courage, Fidelity, Discipline, Hospitality, Self-Reliance, Industriousness, Perseverance and
Truth* (* with truth being something you seek to discover, have the courage to see and accept, as well as something you teach and say. )

Personally I’d be happy if more people were seeking Self-Reliance, for when too many people lack Self-Reliance it kills freedom for all.

Aug 18 2013:
I understood that we live in disorder when I came across the writings of some teachers especially jiddu krishnamurti. All forms of meditation , zen, teachers, buddhism etc will increase the chances of the state of mind where this perception can occur but no system currently knows exactly how to bring it about. Even great teachers like buddha or jesus "stumbled" and got into this state by chance so they dont know how to bring it about in others. IF they knew this process then they would have changed their followers but they were NOT able to transmit this ego free existence to others.

It does not help if someone in some corner of the world is enlightened but we should understand how to bring the perceptual leap in the wider masses. Right now the tragedy is we dont know how this happens. A few who were enlightened in the history of the world were declared as GODS and we seperated them and even killed some of them. It is hard.

Aug 18 2013:
If we were given one thing to do...we would do that makes most difference to humanity on this globe. Humanity is stuck horizantally in its evolutionary cycle and with rapid advances in technology this species is sure to perish.

Humanity is not able to take that leap into an existence that is not driven by ego. Though few great teachers visited this world they could not bring this change in the wider masses. We are stuck in the ego based existence. The human misery and issues remain the same what they were thousands of years back. Competition, brutality, war , violence , killings still plague us. Humanity did not change. It is stuck on a certain level reaching its precipice everyday pushed by technology. It is on a path to self destruct.

If you would one great great thing then that would be to free humanity from this kind of ego centered existence. This needs a percpetion , a leap of insight and the way for everyone to get this. This is the one and only thing that can save humanity and is the need of the hour. Everything else is a distraction.

And then no amount of preaching, teaching , deliberating, monks, gurus, meditations, magic will do....all of them are just distractions. What is killing society today is distractions...big , small and all kinds of distractions. Nothing will work except perception into the nature of thought and existence.

Of all the many states that engender war
our own inner state is most responsible, for sure
since that which is within is always projected out
that’s why we always have wars, no doubt;
so then, if we were all to cultivate inner peace …
wars would cease.
(JFDB, 2010)